Brett Evans
Houston County District Attorney Kelly Burke says Warner Robins Police Chief Brett Evans did not violate any statute or commit any crime during a GBI investigation at Warner Robins City Hall.
A Houston County grand jury met Tuesday afternoon to talk about the concerns of the previous grand jury regarding the investigation of two former city hall employees. The foreman of the previous grand jury returned to talk about those concerns.
Burke said the grand jury did not take any action about the foreman's comments. Burke said the grand jurors said, "They would think about it." He said they could choose to bring up the case at a later date, or it may never come up again.
Burke said Tuesday morning, "I don't believe there's any crime alleged in the GBI report or in anything in reference to Chief Evans. I want to make that clear."
In December, the grand jury asked District Attorney Kelly Burke to inform then mayor John Havrilla about Chief Brett Evans lack of "candor" during the investigation of Stan Martin and Chris Armstrong.
The GBI was asked to investigate whether Martin and Armstrong broke into the office of the late Mayor Donald Walker. A grandy jury concluded that that those two did not commit any crime.
In that letter, Burke echoed the grand jury's concerns saying, "I, for one, am unclear why Chief Evans felt the need to withhold information from myself or the GBI."
Tuesday before the grand jury met, Burke said he did not believe Evans violated any statute or committed any crime, and that he would share that opinion with the grand jurors.
Burke said, "If he was less than candid, that's a different issue and that's not really in my opinion, what grand juriese do is decide if someone is less than candid or not."
Burke said he wrote the letter to the former mayor, because it's what the grand jury instructed him to to do.
He said he included his opinion in the letter, because he believed Evans was not completely forthcoming with information when questioned by the GBI, but said the chief did answer truthfully when asked specific questions.
Burke wrote that he assumed Evans lack of "candor" resulted from an atmosphere of distrust at Warner Robins City Hall, after the suicide of Donald Walker.
Reached by phone, Brett Evans stood by his December statement in which he said he did "absolutely nothing inappropriate" during the GBI investigation.